Posted on 03/19/2006 5:51:41 AM PST by SJackson
Cutting the hooves off of a newborn bull calf so it won't ever try to stand and keeping it in the dark for 6-8 months so it won't have enough vitamin D to process calcium into bone material and feeding it only milk. Then slaughtering it for the pitiful amount of meat it provides
Sounds cruel to me.
That's OK Ma'am, cuz real veal is homegrown by ranchers who care for their livestock, not dirt grubbin farmers.
I'll volunteer my response, as a thirty-five year vegetarian. You might not agree, but I hope it's reasoned. By the way, I despise PETA.
Few people will eat a human animal. Why? It's wrong to take the life of such a highly evolved, conscious being unnecessarily. Likewise, few people would eat a monkey or a chimpanzee. Going further down the scale, a billion Hindus won't eat a cow, and probably a similar number of Westerners won't eat a horse or a dog. Most people in the world will eat a bird or a fish. Nearly everyone wll eat a fruit or a vegetable.
To me, it's simply a personal moral choice as to where you make the cutoff. As a vegetarian, I'd rather not take the lives of animals when I can easily subsist on lesser creatures from the plant world.
Frankly, I tried penning him up every night. He couldn't stand it. He beat his beak bloody. He would notlet me pick him up in the evenings, knowing that was what I would do. He very happily spends his nights on either my small lake or pond. So he is essentially safe from these preditors.
The other geese just didn't seem to have his survival sense and may have confronted the preditors, not being smart enough to discern a risk from our domestic canine pets.
Oh, my! Those in my family and my neighbor would be heart broken should anything like this happen to our Sylvester. I can understand the father-in-law's feelings.
I hope for Sylvester's natural demise. I have wondered if his acute senses (hearing, sight, etc.) will fade with age and put him at risk. He is miserable penned up.
I can't imagine it. Would you do that to your dog or cat...NO!
It is been a special privilege and pleasure knowing our Sylvester. I had no idea geese could be such wonderful and loving friends.
I can call his name when he is out on the lake and he will come running, sometimes flying. He doesn't come because he thinks I have food. He really loves me. He loves to sit with me and softly talk. If he is on the lake when I come out of the house he yells at me! It's like he is saying 'Hey Hi! I know he is 1 in 10,000.
I really enjoyed that book too!
"I'll volunteer my response, as a thirty-five year vegetarian. You might not agree, but I hope it's reasoned. By the way, I despise PETA."
Fair enough and your reasoned response (congrats!) denies the false dichotomy of meateater vs vegetarian. What we probably both despise is this dichotomy created by the Animal Worshippers that puts them on a different plane than us "savages". Rather than living to help animals, they become egocentric and phoney crusaders.
However, let us do note for the record that western civilizations do eat animals that are on the "dumber than dirt" side - fish, cattle, poultry, eggs have as much personality as cauliflower.
Are you vegan and what do you think about these new meat products that are actually grown in a test tube and violate no life?
Thanks again for your enlightening post.
I spent the summers of 82 and 83 working on the Graf Reconstruction Project. I remember the Metropol. There was a few places I used to go but for the life of me I can't remember. One was just outside the main get. I heard it was shutdown shortly after I left.
I was with the 3rd of the 60th. Hawk. They had several good bars and eating places there. The metropol was just outside the gate. That snitzel stand was just down the street. Around the corner was Mickys. Further in town was this place that served up what they called the "farmers breakfast". Man was that a feast.
Mickey's, That was one of them. They had a band there that was pretty good. The food wasn't too shabby either. There was a little Italian place outside the side gate. I ate there the most.
Even have the Kiwi ice cream in Nuremburg? Absolutely amazing. The spaghetti eis was good too.
Nope, didn't get to nurenburg. Only went to regensburg for four months.
Loved the bands at mickys. Higher class than the metropol. I had many a calzone at that itallian place.
Did you ever get down to the VFW or the bar across the street from it?
Yes, I visited there a few times. I reminded my of the VFW in my home town.
For me, personally, veganism is an unnecessary extreme. Though I respect animals and don't like to eat them, I do believe that man was created in the image of God and his life is infinitely more valuable. Unlike the Jains I have no problem slapping a mosquito, and unlike the vegans I don't consider milk and honey to be products of slave labor. I haven't heard of test tube meat, but I like natural food and won't even eat texturized soy protein, alias veggie burgers.
The way I see it, we all take life when we eat, be it a chicken or a carrot. I just like to minimize the loss of life. I like Ted Nugent and hunters like him who respect the life they take and beleive in what they're doing.
I never had much knowledge of PETA until several years ago when I saw a news item. A lovely seventeen year old girl was crowned the Iowa pork queen, and while she was proudly getting her crown with her family cheering her on some PETA $#!* threw a pie in her face and made her cry. I agree with you 100% that those idiots are all about their own egos.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, too. Not all carnivores are brutes and not all herbivores are wimps :)
somehow, your comment reminded me of the situation in h. g. wells's "the time machine".
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